Weft-replenishing loom



C. H. DRAPER WEFT REPLENISHING LOOM Jan. 11, 1927. 1,613,650

Filed March 6: 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 1111., 1 1927. c. H. DRAPER WEFT REPLENISHING LOOM 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 6.

Z17 News:

WA W

1,613,650 Jan. 11 1927' c. H. DRAPER WEFT REPLENI SHING LO 0M File d Marci 6 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet s 1,613,650 1927' c. H. DRAPER WEFT REPLENISHING L0 0M Patented Jan. 11, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT/OFFICE;

01.111211: 1:. banana, or :aorEnALn, MASSACHUSETTS, nssrenon 'ro normmnn 111m- FACTURING COMPANY, or MILFORD, massacnrosnrrs, A CORPORATION or amasse- CHUSETTS.

wnrr-nnrnnmsnme Loom.

The present invention relates to an improvement in weft replenishing looms,.and more particularly to weft replenishing'looms of the bobbin changing type. I

5 V In weft replenishing'looms of the bobbin changing type, bobbins are ordinarily supported in a rotary hopper from which the bobbins are transferred to the shuttle to re-,

well as upon his ability to keep the hoppers, provided. 1 Obviously, in going from loom toloom replenishing hoppers, the one last replenished is provided with a full complement of bobbins, and those longest left untended are more nearly exhausted. In order to enable a single operative to tend a larger number of looms, it is proposed, according to the present invention, to provide automatic means for filling the hoppers from a supplemental supply of bobbins. The present invention consists in the loom hereinafter described and particularly defined in the claims.

.ing the preferred form of the invention, Fig.

1 is an end view of a part of a weft replenishing loom of the bobbin changing type,

some parts of the hopper being removed for the purpose of illustration;v Fig. 2 is a detail view of some of the parts shown in Fig. 1, illustrating the 'manner of transferring a bobbin from the magazine to the hopper;

' Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the portion of the loom shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a sectional plan view of the hopper; and Figs,5 and 6 are sectional views taken on lines 5-5 and 6-6 of Fig. 4 respectively, illustrating features of construction hereinafter referred to. The illustrated embodiment of the invention is described as follows: The hopper, indicated in a general way by the reference character 10, is of the rotary type, and is adapted to carry bobbins one ata time to the transfer hammer ll by which they are inserted in'the shuttle 12. Theday 13, the loom frame 14, the transfer mechanism compris- In the accompanying drawings ill'ustrat ing the hammer 11. and associated parts, the

shuttle 'feeler 15, the change shaft 16, and the transfer latch 17 are or may be of any suitable or preferred form, the construction illustrated being that shown in the Northrop, No. 1,259,768.

patent to In the loom of said patentthere isprovided a mechanism which advances the hopper after each transfer operation to present a new bobbin to the transfer mechanism, and

-which is arranged automatically to advance the hopper step by step upon succeeding beats of the lay until a fulLbobbin is presented in .the'event that there are spaces in the hopper not filled with bobbins. According to this patent, the hopper is fed with bobbins by hand. The loom of the present invention employs the automatic hopper advancing mech anism as described in the above mentioned patent and provides for automatic feeding I of bobbins from a magazine to the hopper at eaclf advanceof the latter. This magazine, which is indicated at 20; consists of a vertical chute supported by a bracket 22 bolted to the plate 24 of the hopper. Supported on a sleeve 26 surrounding the transfer shaft 28 is a hub 30 carrying a hopper feeding arm 32. Secured to the hopper feed arm is a rod 34 having at one end a bobbin butt engaging hammer 36 and at the other end a bobbin tip'engaging yoke or tip carrier 38..

Depending from the hub 30 is an arm 40 to which is pivoted a hopper feed latch 42. During normal operation of the loom the latch occupies the position shown in Fig. 1,

but under certain conditions of operation vpresently to be described the latch is moved to be presented in the path of a hunter 44 on the lay, whereby the hopper feed arm is rocked upon a forward beat of the lay to transfer a bobbin fromthe magazine to the hopper. At the proper time for feeding a bobbin to the hopper, the lowermost bobbin is engaged by the hammer 36 and tip carrier 38, so that the butt is presented to the butt end disk 46 and the tip is carried over to the small end disk 48, being thereafter retained in position by the usual radial spring '50. Provision is made for the simultaneous transfer of the free end of the thread, and for this purpose a-removable thread end securing means. is provided for each bobbin in per shaft. The disk has a series of button engaging pockets into which the buttons are fed from the chute by means of a button transferring arm 66 mounted on a hub 68 secured to the sleeve 26. The buttons are retained in the pockets 65 by means of radial springs 70. After a bobbin has been supplied to the hopper, the bobbins in the maga zine drop to a position to present the next hohhin for the feeding operation. In order to facilitate alignment of the bobbin tips within the magazine the walls of the magazine adjacent to the slot 52 are bevelled as at 76, while that portion 77 of the magazine extending laterally from the vertical portion is provided on its lower side with a spring piece 7 8 which will hold the bobbin tip and at the same time yield slightly to adapt the slot to variations in the bobbins. It will be seen that the hopper feed arm and the bobbin transfer arm are actuated at the same time by virtue of their connection on the sleeve 26. A coil spring 80 surrounding the transfer shaft 28 normally holds the hopper feed arm and the button transferrer in inoperative position, as shown in Fig. 1.

The hopper feed arm is actuated through the hopper advancing mechanism. This latter mechanism and its mode of operation, while completely described in detail in the Northrop patent above referred to, will be briefly reviewed here. The feed pawl 90 engaging the ratchet 92 on the hopper is normally urged upward by means of a compression spring 94 taking between the pawl and a. fixed abutment 96. Connected with the pawl is a hell crank lever 98 pivoted at 100 upon the hopper plate and having a depending arm 102 to which is pivoted a latch 104 having an upstanding arm 106. These parts as illustrated in Fig. 1 are in the positions which they occupy during the normal operation of the loom. Assuming now that weft replenishment is indicated, the transfer latch 17 will he lifted and by means of a pin 108 thereon will lift the latch 104 in position to be engaged by the bunter'44 of the lay. The pawl 90 is now in set position, the spring 94 being compressed. When the lay completes its forward beat the transfer hammer 11 inserts the bobbin indicated at 110 into the shuttle, and upon retraction of the lay the lower arm of the bell crank lever moves to the right and the pawl rises to advance the hopper until the next bobbin moves into position .beneath the transfer hammer. The latch 104 is still presented to the hunter 44 because of the engagement of its arm 106 with the abutment 96, so that upon the next forward heatof the lay the latch will be struck-by the hunter to pull the pawl down into set position again. If a bobbin has been moved to the position indicated -at 110 the pawl is unable to advance the hopper on the succeeding rearward heat of the lay, and the latch 104 merely drops to the position indicated in Fig. 1. If, however, there are empty spaces in the hopper the hopper will advance by a step-hy-step movement due to the provision of a stop 112 on the lever 98 which is adapted to engage the successive recesses of the butt end disk after each advance until a full bobbin is presented beneath the transfer arm.

For the purposes of the present invention the lower arm of the hell crank lever 98 is forked to provide an arm 114 to which is secured a pin 116 engaging with a cam surface 118 of the hopper feed latch 42, the arrangement being such that when the arm 114 is in its left-hand position as indicated in Fig. 1 the latch will be out of the path of the hunter, but when the arm 114 is moved to the right the latch will be lifted to the position shown in Fig. 2 in position to he struck by the hunter upon the next forward heat of the lay. This construction provides for operation of the hopper feed arm upon the next forward beat of the lay succeeding advancement of the hopper. As suming that the bobbin 110, as indicated in Fig. 1, is inserted in the shuttle after a forward heat of the lay and that the pawl 90 has been actuated to advance the hopper one step on the next rearward beat of the lay, the parts will he in the position shown in Fig. 2', the latch 42 having been raised by the movement of the arm 114. The advance of the hopper has provided a space as indicated at 130 to admit the entrance of a new bobbin from the magazine. Upon the next forward beat of the lay the hunter 44 engages the latch 42, thus rocking the hopper feed arm 32 and transferring the lowermost bobbin of the magazine into the hopper at the point 130, and at the same time transferring a button from the hutton chute into a suitable pocket in the button end disk. This same forward heat of .the lay engages the latch 104 and resets the pawl, and on the next rearward beat of the lay, if a bohbin has reached the position 110 beneath the transfer hammer, the latches 42 and 104 are permitted to drop out of the path,of the hunter, while if the space 110 is unoccupied by a bobbin the pawl 90 is permitted to move upwardly, advancing the hopper and presenting the latches 42 and 104 in position to he engaged by the hunter empty spaces in the hopper this manner of replenishingeifectively tends toward ultimate filling of the entire hopper, thus mamtaining the available supply of bobbins at a maximum.

Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate the positions of the'small end disk and the button disk immediately after an advance of the hopper has taken place. As shown in Fig. 6, a bobbin indicated at 133 is in a position where it is ready for transfer into the shuttle at the proper time, and a bobbin is about to be fed from the magazine into the hopper on the next forward beat of the lay- At this time the button corresponding to the bobbin which has just been transferred to the shuttle is in the position indicated at 136 in Fig. 5. Provision is made for removing this button from the button disk simultaneously with the feeding of a new bobbin into the hopper. For this purpose the hub 64: of the button transfer arm carries a second arm 134'having at its end an adjustable hammer 135 which is adapted to enter an opening 137 in the pocket of the button disk to knock out the button 136. This button before transfer occupied the position 138, and on the first rearward beat after.

' held by the warp so that retention of the button 136 is no longer necessary 'and the button "is accordingly removed on the next forward beat by means of the hammer 135. If the hopper is provided with a full complement of bobbins so that a new bobbin has been moved into proper position beneath the transfer mechanism, the hammer 1'35 will .not be again actuated until after the next transfer operation. However, if the hopper is caused to advance several spaces after a transfer due to empty spaces in the previously described and the hammer 135* Wlll be actuated at each fe'ed. At such times hopper, the hopper feed will continue as there will ordinarily be no buttons in the main in their pockets to prevent their being carried around in the button. disk .to intermagazine is not shown, being broken off .above the tenth bobbin so that, as shown in the drawings, 31 bobbins are available to be fed to the shuttle. This construction contemplates a substantial saving of expenseby increasing the number of looms tended by '90 each operative as well as substantial increase of output due to the running of the looms when attendance of the apparatus has been discontinued, such as during the lunch period or the period between successive shifts.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is 1. A weft replenishing loom of the bobbin changing type having, in combination, a lay.

a. hopper adapted to carry a plurality of bobbins, a'magazine, bobbin feeding means for loading the hopper from the magazine," a latch carried by the hopper feeding means, and means for causing the latchto be engaged by the lay. on a forward beat following operation of the transfer mechanism whereby a bobbin will be fed from the magazine to the hopper.

2. A weft replenishing loom of the bobbin changing type having, in combination, a lay, 1 a hopper, transfer mechanism, hopper advancing means for presenting successive bob-1 bins to the transfer mechanism, a bobbin magazine, feeding means for loading bobbins from the magazine to the hopper, a

latch on the feeding means, and connections between the hopper advancing means and the latch for setting the latch in .the path,

of a moving part of the loom to cause oper ation of the feeding means following each advance of the hopper.

3. A weft replenishing loom of thebobbin changingtype having, in combination, a lay, a hopper adapted to carry a plurality of bobbins, transfer mechanism, hopper advancing means for presenting successive bobbins to the transfer mechanism, a bobbin magazine, feeding means for loading the hopper'with bobbins from the magazine, a latch on the feeding means, and connections between. the hopper advancing means and the latch for setting the latch in position to be engaged by the lay on the next forward beat succeeding hopper advance to cause operation of the hopper feeding means. position 136, but the hammer operates in the same manner and will serve to knock out anybuttons which might accidentally re-' 4. A weft replenishing lo'om of the bobbin changing type having, in combination, a'lay "provided with a bunter, a hopper adapted A means for loading the hopper with bobbins ing means and the last mentioned latch for from'the magazine, hopper advancing means ermitting engagement of the latter with the provided with a latch adapted to be enay hunter on the next forward beat of the 1 gaged by the lay hunter and to permit adlay to operate the hopper feeding means. Vance of the hopper on a rearward beat of In testimony whereof I have signed my the lay, a latch on the hopper feeding means, name to this specification.

and connections between the hopper advanc- CLARE H. DRAPER. 

